Technical Need garage heating ideas:

Need garage heating ideas that hopefully don't involve combustion.

Or, if they do involve combustion, then the exhaust is easy to remove and not thru the roof.

Space is about 20' X 30'
i am using a combination of kerosene, electric, and leaving the door to rest of the house open and working in the garage for a few mins, going back inside the house to warm up, going back into the garage, repeat etc.

This can work ok, if it's not too cold outside, but if it's sub 38-ish, then i am thinking there is a better way?


Thanks.

 

I just put in a direct vent propane wall heater. One 9" hole in the wall. Vent sits right on the wall.

 

You can buy a cheap electric furnace for a mobile home forced air can heat up a insulated space quite quickly. No fumes. I have a 30x40 steel building but very well insulted and no windows, i turn mine on set it at about 65 degrees and 10 minutes later it shuts off depending on how cold it is outside( i live in northern ohio) it may not cycle for an hour or so .

 

What Oldsman41 said. Go find someplace that tears down old mobile homes, most have electric
furnaces and you can usually get them for under $50. They will heat a good size space if you get
one out of a 65-70 footer. Will require 60 amps and you are home free. My 24x32 garage with 14ft
high ceiling is heated with one.

 

Since we really don't know what temperate zone you live in. Do you live in the United States? Determining your location has a lot to do with your question which we don't know. Therefore I will say don't work on your stuff when it is below 38 F or C which it could be either, depending on where you live.

 

I have electric heat/air system in my 30 x 40 garage, insulated doors & windows, sheet rock walls & ceiling and insulated to the max.

I worked in the shop at least 3 nights a week and every other Saturday, I set the thermostat to 65 degrees and I looked at the power bill this past week, the shop was 41 bucks and some change, I use to spend that keeping a kerosene heater fed and still was cold. HRP

 

Best hope PG&E never takes over your service...we pay around 17 cents a KWH, then get tiered up over some baseline usage..etc, etc. Your bill would have added in the 200 range here after they bumped it up over the baseline use.

 

The Hot One.

 

Unless you have natural gas on your property, electric will probably be the cheapest to run. Should be the cheapest to buy/install. As electric rates vary widely around the country, how much it'll cost you is hard to say. The only thing I'll add is make sure you filter the inlet air on an electric furnace to keep crap off the elements.

 

I put a Fahrenheat FUH54 240-volt Garage Heater, 2500-5000-watt
in a 500 sf insulated garage in Kanab Utah. I keep it on low and that maintains the shop at 39.5° when outside temp is 21°. When I come in and turn it up it quickly brings the shop up to 72 and I work in a t shirt and shorts. Cost
$259.99 delivered through Amazon and I have not noticed an increase in the electric bill. Best thing I ever did shop wise.

 

i'm in the northeast, (couldn't you tell by how neurotic i am?), so it's 38 F, not C.

Thanks, everyone.

 

A heater would heat the place up.

 

I have a natural gas radiant heater. Closed system so no chance of going boom. Inexpensive and toasty.

 

That said you should have access to firewood or possibly coal. I have a outdoor burner that uses either wood or coal. Wood requires that you have access to it and are capable of; cutting, splitting, hauling, stacking, and putting it in the burner. Coal just requires; of course access, hauling, and shoveling, plus the added BTU output. My Mahoning outdoor burner is just a hot water heater with overhead air handlers in the garage on the main floor and basement and a heat exchanger in the house furnace. The garage is 32'X30' two stories kept at 55 F and the house is 26'X45' 1 1/2 story with a full basement kept at whatever the wife wants.

 

Sorry to hi-jack....but what size Big Maxx do you have, 50,000 btu? I have roughly the same size shop and these are on sale right now for a good price. Im gonna convert to propane

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I put in a Big Maxx 50k BTU on propane a few years ago in a fairly well insulated 24’x24’ garage and it works really well. I’m in MA so the winters can be tough at times.

 

Heated floors are the safest, cheapest way to go.

 

In the NE it's usually a choice between propane or K1. I assume the K1 heater you are using now is a portable unit? That's not the best choice. Look at Monitor or Toyo K1 heaters. I easily heat an insulated 24X32 garage with a Monitor and use about 125 gallons of K1 each winter. I keep it set at 52 all the time as the thermostat usually shuts off at set point +4. When I go out to work I set it at 58 and it's 60 / 62 all the time. Direct vent through the wall and has fresh air intake. Check your building code as in a garage you may have to mount the heater 18" above the floor.

 

I have a split system heat and air in my 50x60 in Missouri. The a/c worked great this past summer and seemed to be pretty economical on my electric bill. This is my first winter with it on the heat side and although we don’t get nearly as cold as you guys up in the northeast, so far I’ve been very pleased. You can go over on The Garage Journal and get a lot of ideas. There’s a forum just for HVAC. Ron


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What type of heat does your house have? If it is hot water base board & your boiler is in the garage, then you can easily add a zone valve for the garage & plumb in a overhead heater that looks just like one that is a natural gas fired heater, but uses hot water from your house furnace. I did this at my last house.

 

That's what I have and at 35 deg. outside it will keep my 20/24 ft garage 75 deg. I bought it pretty cheep from Tractor Supply.

 

I've had an 92% efficient electric furnace in my shop (30'x42' with 12' ceilings) for 26-years and it works great. I insulated the ceiling with 12" fiberglass batting and put up 3/4" foil-faced foam on the ceiling when I purchased the property. I can get the heat up to 70°F in an hour or so when the outside temp is around freezing. I'm in the shop almost daily for 3- or 4-hours, and left it on for a week straight after I painted my car.
So far, this year the shop, which is on its own meter and has commercial rates, has run about $600 for the entire year. It usually runs about $450-$500/year, but I've been out there a lot more than usual this year.

 

We've been through this before. If you have a 220 welder outlet in your shop, check this out for the quickest, easiest way to go : https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ow-you-heat-them.1090747/page-5#post-12466815.

Actually, that whole thread has a lot of good information.

 

And are the best when you need to lay down under the car.I wish I had a system like that.I use a propane torpedo type heater.I fill a 100lb bottle once a year and only use it while I'm out there.Sometimes I have to shut it off because it gets too hot out there.

 

When my buddy told me about this I thought he was crazy but then he showed me and it actually works good.

Take a metal trash can and drill 2" holes around it near the bottom then flip it upside down over top of a halogen work light!

2 of these in his 20'x24' garage keeps it over 50 degrees all winter here in michigan.

 

I have a 32' X 40' insulated shop with 11' ceiling. I installed a NG radiant tube down the center, then an elbow and out the side wall. I don't leave it on, but it will warm the place from ~0C to 18C in under an hour. I love it.

 

This is mine. 20X24 split unit ,heat & AC all year long 24-7. Compact neat unit.

 

Bob, that unit interests me. If you don't mind, who is it made by?

 

While visiting my son in Las Vegas, he bought a unit that looks just like yours at Costco for around $1000. Poor directions but online video helped quite a bit for installation. Don't know about the cooling portion since it was installed just last month but it heats his 12x30, 14 ceiling shop with no insulation to 70 degrees in about 1/2 hour.

 

Looks to me as if says Carrier.